Blessed are the merciful, for that shall obtain mercy.
Matthew 5:7
Mercy is one quality that is sorely missing in the world today. The business world is built around hard work, the will to succeed and survival of the fittest. How can one be successful in business and be merciful at the same time? Seems like a conflict in terms.
What is mercy? Mercy is what lessens the gap created by sin. There is a gap between us and God, and there are gaps between us and our neighbor. And these are the result of sin. Mercy is how we lessen the gap between us and our neighbor. God’s mercy on us is what lessens the gap between us and Him. This is why the pre-eminent prayers in the church revolve around mercy:
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, Have MERCY on us. (Trisagion Prayer)
Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have MERCY on me a sinner (Jesus Prayer)
The response to most of the petitions in our Divine services is Kyrie, eleison/Lord, have MERCY sung either once or three times. The petitions address the aforementioned gaps in our world. We pray for peace in the world, as an example, because we lack peace in the world, and then we respond Lord, have mercy and fill the gap that exists between God’s intention for universal peace and the reality that we are far off from that.
The journey of Great Lent is based on the mercies of God:
Open to me the gates of repentance, O Giver of Life, for early in the morning my spirit hastens to Your holy temple, bringing the temple of my body all defiled. But as one compassionate, cleanse me, I pray, by Your loving-kindness and mercy.
When I ponder in my wretchedness on the many terrible things that I have done, I tremble for that fearful day, the Day of Judgment. But trusting in the mercy of Your compassion, like David I cry to You, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy.” (Idiomela from the Orthros following the 50th Psalm on all Sundays of the Triodion, Trans, by Fr. Seraphim Dedes)
Mercy is not a right. It is a GIFT from God to us that we do not necessarily deserve. It is a gift that we are supposed to bestow on our neighbor, whether he deserves it or not. We are supposed to be merciful to others. In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37), the good neighbor is the one who showed mercy on the man who was beaten and robbed, even though that man was his enemy. In the parable, a Jewish man is beaten and robbed and is laying by the road dying. There is a significant gap between his healthy existence and his near-death state of injury. That gap can only be filled by another person. A priest and a Levite, men from his temple who should have been first to bridge that gap pass by on the other side. It is a Samaritan, a sworn enemy of the Jews, who shows mercy by not only helping the man in his medical distress but crossing the large cultural gap that would have outwardly discouraged doing that.
In Matthew 18: 22-35, a man owes a large sum of money to his master, who forgives the debt. What the master should have done was throw the man in prison. Punishment is what he deserved. Mercy is when we do not receive what is owed to us, but someone delivers us from a just judgment with forgiveness. This is mercy. The master spares the man from a just punishment by forgiving all the debt. Then the forgiven man comes upon one of his servants who owes him a fraction of the debt he was just forgiven. And rather than show him some mercy, he doesn’t forgive and throws the man in jail. When the master of the first servant finds out that the servant he forgave could not forgive someone else, he withdraws his mercy and throws that first servant into jail, because he didn’t show mercy after receiving it.
It’s kind of sobering to think whether our behavior outside of worship (whether we are quick to extend mercy or whether we withhold it) is congruent with our behavior inside of worship (where we ask God for mercy many times, expecting and trusting that we will receive it).
The most difficult dimension of mercy is forgiveness, showing mercy to our neighbor who has wronged us. But this is exactly what we need from the Lord, His mercy, to overlook our wrongs. The goal in offering mercy is to offer it graciously and generously, without expecting anything in return. If we cultivate this virtue of being merciful to others, then this is a gift that the Lord will bestow on us graciously as well. Being merciful means praying for your enemies, it means not nagging people over small things. It means being easy to entreat and easy to forgive, just as the Lord is easy to entreat and easy to forgive.
I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods! Thou hast multiplied, O Lord my god, Thy wondrous deeds and Thy thoughts toward us; none can compare with Thee! Were I to proclaim and tell of them they would be more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering Thou dost not desire; but Thou hast given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering Thou hast not required. Then I said, “Lo, I come; in the roll of the book it is written of me; I delight to do Thy will, O my god; Thy law is within my heart.” I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; lo, I have no restrained my lips, as Thou knowest, O Lord. I have not hid Thy saving help within my heart, I have spoken of Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation; I have not concealed Thy steadfast love and Thy faithfulness from the great congregation. Do not Thou, O Lord, withhold Thy mercy from me, let Thy steadfast love and Thy faithfulness ever preserve me! For evils have encompassed me without number; my iniquities have overtaken me; till I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me! Let them be put to shame and confusion altogether who seek to snatch away my life; let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire my hurt! Let them be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, Aha!” But may all who seek Thee rejoice and be glad in thee; may those who love Thy salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!” As for me, I am poor and needy; but the Lord takes thought for me. Thou art my help and my deliverer; do not tarry, O my God! Psalm 40
Point to Ponder: Think of a specific person to whom you can show mercy. Plan now to follow through with a word, a card, a good deed or some other tangible reminder of your care.
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